When Everyone Finds Out
by AnotherWannabeWriter
Summary: There's no real plot here - one shot, just a random attempt at how it might go when everyone finds about Rita and Iain's relationship.


Connie entered the ED waiting room to the sound of conversation and laughter coming from the desk. There were very few actual patients milling about; the day was remarkably quiet. Rita and Robyn were clearly being entertained, and distracted, by Iain. He was leaning up against the reception desk, with a coffee cup in his hand, discussing his latest exploits. Noel and Mac were chatting at the other end of the desk.

"So anyway, I had to..."

"Shouldn't you be fetching us some patients?" Connie interrupted Iain.

"I'm on my break" Iain retorted back. "I've been working non-stop for five hours, I'm allowed my break."

"Well can you please take it elsewhere instead of taking up the valuable time of my staff members."

Lily approached Connie to ask her a question; Connie then turned away from Iain to sign a form for her. Iain pulled a face at her back and made no motion to leave. He decided to take advantage of her being distracted to continue his conversation; it was getting harder and harder for him and Rita to spend any time together as they seemed to be on nearly opposite shifts the whole time. So far no one else knew about their relationship except Dixie and Zoe so he was definitely taking advantage of what little time they could spend together even if it meant spending it with Robyn as well. Even if it meant relaying a story that Rita had heard before.

"So, what happened was.."

"Iain!" Dixie burst through the entrance clearly irritated. "Your break ended nearly ten minutes ago now, we've got a shout to be getting to! Stop flirting and come on!"

Iain rolled his eyes at the nurses. "Well that's me told then ain't it" He leaned down to kiss Rita goodbye. "I'll see you later then." She responded instinctively and kissed him back just like all the times before, except this time they had vitally forgotten that they were in the middle of the ED.

The moment they broke apart it dawned on them what had just happened. All the hospital staff in visible proximity were silent and staring. Iain jerked away from the desk and the prying eyes and walked briskly towards Dixie.

"Did you just…" Dixie trailed off clearly just as stunned as everyone else.

"Just leave it." Iain grunted in reply. He could not get out of there fast enough. Rita was going to kill him; she had made it very explicitly clear that they were going to keep their relationship as quiet as possible for as long as possible. Iain had wholly agreed with her, anyone else who got together at work seemed to fall apart as soon as everybody found out. They hadn't wanted that to happen, but now Iain had gone and messed it all up; it had been going so well.

Sitting in the ambulance he put his head in his hands and cursed at himself under his breath. Dixie hopped into the driver's seat and looked over at him sympathetically.

"Come on mate, chin up, at least you're not having to deal with everyone in there." She gestured back towards the ED. "Poor Rita." She shook her head and chuckled.

Iain jolted up. "Shit, I have to go back in there, she shouldn't have to do that on her own! 'specially seeing as it's my fault" He went to exit the ambulance but Dixie had beat him to it and started the engine.

"We've got a shout, sorry Iain, it'll give you time to come up with all your apologies."

Meanwhile Rita was dealing with the repercussions of Iain's actions in the midst of all their colleagues. To begin with she had just stood there stunned whilst the immensity of what Iain had just done dawned on her. Once she had processed it a little bit she decided to take a leaf out of Iain's book and continue as if nothing unusual had just occurred. How she was going to do that she had no idea.

"Rita, we need you in Resus" Zoe gave her an opportunity to leave the awkwardness of the situation and so she headed over to get on with her job. After all she was a nurse first and a person second.

Rita spent the rest of her shift being followed around by whispers and murmurs, and she would not need to be a genius to guess what they were about. But for some reason she just didn't care; she thought that she would have but Iain made her happy. So who cares if they were gossiping about her; at least, at the end of the day, she still had Iain. At least it wasn't like the last times people had been gossiping about her; it wasn't a lie about her ex-husband that was following her around all day and it wasn't the truth about him either. It was good gossip; it was nice that they were all so interested in her relationship with this man that made her so goddamn happy. She knew that everyone must have thought her insane as her face kept on breaking into the most massive smile whenever she thought about Iain; but she really did not care today.

When Iain finished his shift he rushed to the ED to check on Rita and make sure that he hadn't caused too much of a problem. He was surprised to find her looking so cheerful as she was laughing with a patient and Cal. Rita spotted him looking and walked across to him.

"Hey you" She grinned up at him.

"Eh, I'm really sorry Reets, I didn't mean for that to happen" Iain had prepared so many apologies for Rita so was surprised by her lack of concern.

"They were gonna find out soon enough anyway." She shrugged. "So, why not now?"

"That's not the way I'd envisioned it though, was it, I thought we'd be, like, married, with five kids and twelve grandkids, before they found out" Rita chuckled at him before digesting what he had actually just admitted to.

"You think about us getting married?" She was surprised, he had never seemed the type. "And having kids? Well you can think again if you think I'm putting my body through that five times!"

"Yeah of course I do." Iain looked at her as if he was going to follow up with something else, but whatever it was he wimped out.

Rita reached up and pulled him to her planting far more than a goodbye kiss on his lips; she had no concerns about who saw them this time.

"Good, so do I."


End file.
